Tea and Sympathy and Lies

When the show opened on Broadway, Edward M. Cohen was 19 and suffering with what was then called “homosexual tendencies.” He desperately wanted to play the hero, on stage and in life.

By Edward M. Cohen

In 1953, “Tea and Sympathy” opened on Broadway to raves and controversy, mainly because it tackled a taboo subject, homosexuality. But it did so in an acceptable way because the hero turned out to be straight, after all. So everybody could breathe a sigh of relief. In the end, he learns the truth about himself with the help of a beauti…